Over the past week I have gotten a couple of phone calls and a few e-mails from elected members of the San Diego Republican Party Central Committee. While none have been identical, the subject matter of the calls has been the same – the candidacy of former San Diego City Councilman Brian Maienschein for the State Assembly. The context is this – Maienschein, a Republican, is running for what is, in essence, the Assembly seat currently held by Nathan Fletcher. Tomorrow the San Diego GOP is considering potential party endorsements in many legislative races, including this seat, at a special meeting. Maienschein has a Republican opponent, Dustin Steiner, who works for Supervisor Bill Horn. Apparently Maienschien is a controversial candidate because, while on the San Diego City Council, he voted for a lot of the public employee pension boosts that have led that city to being ground-zero for pension reform.

While I counseled those people who contacted me privately, I thought that I might address this issue publicly as well. I don’t know Maienschien personally. I have met him a few times over the years, and said hello to him at last weekend’s big… Read More

About a month ago we broke the news that Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar was dropping his bid for Congress, and instead would be running in the West Orange County 72nd Assembly District, which has no incumbent. At the time Edgar shifted his sights on the state house, it looked like his main opponent would be Huntington Beach Councilman Matt Harper. Westminster Councilman Tyler Diep, as we predicted, dropped out of the race shortly after Edgar’s move.

Today we are breaking the news that Harper has decided not to run for the State Assembly. Instead he will stay on the Huntington Beach Council, where he is in the middle of his first term. In departing the race, Harper told me that he is endorsing Edgar’s Assembly bid.

Harper enjoyed a wide swath of endorsements from prominent conservatives. But according to Harper his motivation to run was lessened after sitting down with Edgar, and realizing that the two of them shared very similar political views. No doubt another factor was Edgar’s ability to self-fund a race while… Read More

This weekend about 5,000 Republican leaders, made up of every member of the State GOP Central Committee and every elected member of each of the state’s 58 County GOP Central Committees from around California, should have been gathering in Sacramento to consider whether the California Republican Party will endorse a candidate for United States Senate. Instead, as few as 24 individual members of the CRP’s Board of Directors will meet in a room at a hotel in Burbank this Sunday, where as few as 16 votes may make a decision that previously had been reserved for millions of Republican voters statewide.

Last month at the California Democrat Party convention/freak show, you may have noticed that they held regional caucus where local party leaders gathered, by district, to determine who would get the CDP endorsement in all of the state’s Congressional, State Senate, and State Assembly Districts. On the Republican side, while County GOP Committees in some cases have given their local endorsements, those same 24 CRP Board Members will gather and will decide on behalf of all California Republicans who the CRP… Read More

Regular readers of this site know that I frequently pan public opinion polling because the results of such surveys are so easily manipulated by factors such as how a question is framed, how it is asked, and to whom it is asked. All of these variables can skew the results of any survey.

That caveat having been given, I take it as an outstanding development that in the Public Policy Institute of California survey released last night that the sales and income tax increases proposed by Governor Brown have plummeted around twenty points since the last time the PPIC asked for public opinion on this topic. Brown’s measure now stands precariously at a bare majority of voter support, 52% — and any student of California politics will tell you that this is not where you want to be.

That having been said, this is the first time the PPIC has been able to use the actual Title and Summary assigned to the tax increase proposal in their questions, which one can presume make these numbers a bit more realistic than the earlier one.… Read More

California will be the center of the political universe in 2012 when it comes to deciding control of the House of Representatives. The Democrats’ strategy is clear: push for big margins of victory for President Obama in heavily Democratic states like New York, Illinois and California, and recruit good House candidates to ride the wave into Congress.

Here in the Golden State, we have 10 or more House districts in play for the first time in modern history. Nancy Pelosi has her eyes on California’s Central Valley, the Central Coast, the Bay Area, the Inland Empire and San Diego for her ticket back into the Speaker’s office.

I’m backing Elizabeth Emken as our candidate for the United States Senate in California because she is far and away the strongest candidate to lead our ticket together with our Republican candidates for President and Vice President.

In ten years as a party chairman in California and San Diego, I’ve met all kinds of candidates for every kind of public office. Elizabeth Emken is one of the sharpest, most engaging, and impressive candidates… Read More

One less liberal Democrat in Congress. One less batcrap crazy on the D side. One less Dennis the Menace.

Ohio is my home state and Toledo is the town where I grew up. It’s the home to some of the most ruthless political operatives in America, and they obviously worked overtime to push Marcy Kaptur to a primary win over Dennis Kucinich.

Dennis made his displeasure known in his concession speech last night in Cleveland:

“I would like to be able to congratulate Congresswoman Kaptur, but I do have to say that she ran a media campaign in the Cleveland media market that was utterly lacking in integrity with false statements, half truths, [and] misrepresentations. I hope that is not the kind of representation she would provide to this community. And I don’t think the people of Toledo have any idea of the kind of campaign that was run up in the Cleveland area,” he said.

Oh, yes, they do, Dennis.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Hundreds of yard signs mysteriously disappearing in the dead of night. Thousands of windshields papered with tabloid-style flyers. Union thugs shouting down candidate speeches. And… Read More

Communications strategist Tony Manolatos is doing a series of interviews with the City of San Diego Mayoral candidates for San Diego Rostra. I’ll republish them on FlashReport (having received Tony’s permission, of course). First, Nathan Fletcher. The following ran last weekend (here is the Rostra post):

Fletcher’s Fetcher…And More From Our First Candidate Q & A by Tony Manolatos

Politics & Media Mashup is on break for the next few weeks so we can bring you exclusive Q & As with San Diego Mayoral candidates Nathan Fletcher, Carl DeMaio and Bonnie Dumanis.

… Read More

I want to answer Chuck DeVore’s surprising attack on Elizabeth Emken in Flash Report today. First, let me say that Chuck DeVore has been a friend and was helpful to me when I first became Communications Director for the CRP. And I was sad to see him leave California for safer ground in Texas.

But, I alsounderstand that Chuck is just as human as any of us, and that’s why he’s still frosted over the Senate Primary, where he came in 3rd out of 3candidates.I imagine that’s why he’s decided to come after GOP frontrunner Elizabeth Emken (whose campaign I’m working for as Senior Communications Adviser.).He sees some of Carly’s team helping Elizabeth in her Senate race, and it’s paybacktime. And that’s a shame.

For the record: