Sixty-three percent of Republican and conservative Decline to State voters oppose the party platform’reforms’.More than58%say theyapprove of a new party, the Conservative Party, that would be founded ontraditional Republicanprincipals.And fifty-percent of Republican voters would also consider joining a newly formed Conservative Party in California if that option was available.

While I am not an advocate for the formation of a Conservative Party, I have heard rumblings about such a movement.These pollingnumbers clearly indicate that Republican voters want their party to remain true to it’s conservative roots and that there is a significant element among Decline to State voters who self-identify as conservatives and hold similar values.

You can find the link to the full poll report here.… Read More

Given that Romney has been campaigning in California for more than five years and Perry has barely been to the state, Perry seems to be positioned well. Governor Perry announced in the middle of fielding the poll.… Read More

The developer had the help of veteran political consultant Eileen Padberg. But there was also a robust independent expenditure funded by the Orange CountyAssociation of Realtors (Dave Stefanides) and run by political consultant Brandon Powers.

The campaign stuck to basic messages and they won, which is not easy in party of South Orange County where development can meet with strong opposition.… Read More

OCTax is known for working with local government to improve tax policy andwork better with the business community. They also have a PAC that endorses and contributes to pro-business and anti-tax candidates.

In recent years the group has brought on higher profile leaders to serve on the board including former CA Housing and Community Development Director and current OC Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn and Cox Communications Government Affairs executive Jim Leach.

OCTax’s mission is to insure that taxes and tax supported programs are fair, understandable, cost effective and good for the economy.

OCTax is one of those endorsements you want to collect and feature in your voter contact if you can. The group has positive name ID and especially now, when voters are so peeved over the failed state of government budgets, OCTax’s stamp of approval is helpful to have. Organization president Reed Royalty has been around a long time and has the respect of most… Read More

In fact, if the school district needs a new school site in a dozen years from now, it is highly likely that they will be forced to go to the taxpayers for the money through the sale of bonds or increased property taxes like a parcel tax.

I my home town of Irvine the school district is on the verge of selling off two neighborhood schools. This school district is always crying poor. Even worse, they may be looking to use loopholes in state law to spend the proceeds of the sale to fund operations.

You can check out my column on the subject in today’s Orange County Register here.… Read More

One was initiated by a Fullerton planning commissioner Doug Chaffee, a Democrat who was down 90 votes in the certified results. After today, he is now down 91 votes. Maybe he’ll give tomorrow a try again, but with loosing a vote, I can’t imagine he’d want to keep paying to loose ground.

The other recount was started by Constantine “Dean” Zarkos, appointed Los Alamitos Councilmember who is down 20 votes. Not much to report there. I wish Zarkos had won. But it is very hard to make big swings in votes on recounts – especially in such a well run shop as OC Registrar Neal Kelley runs.

Political attorney Steve Baric is working for both McKinley, who is ahead of Chaffee in Fullerton and for Zarkos. Also on hand today at the Registrar were McKinley consultant Dave Ellis and GOP staffer George Andrews.… Read More

Please do not mistake my research for my own opinion though. I support the use of robo calls (although never in the practice of conducting legitamate research) for campaigns. They are cheap and especially in response to a late hit, they can be very effective.

However most voters say they don’t even listen to the calls.

Our poll, which can be found here shows that 82% of likely voters say they find the calls annoying and a full 66% say they never listen to them.

Not listening can be a missleading answer. If a call opens with "Hi, this is Meg Whitman…" and then the voter hangs up or deletes the message,at least the impression of Meg calling has been made whether they hear the rest of her message or not.

This leads to an important tactical edict for robo calls: Put the candidates names at the begining of the call. Even if you’ve got Bill Clinton calling for… Read More

So it is highly amusing that someone actually went to court over the title of vice president of the Bethel School District. The case is detailed in this month’s Colantuno & Levine, PC newsletter.

Basically Blair was vice president of the school board and spoke out against the superintendent. His board colleagues stripped him of his veep title and he sued. He lost.

The 9th Circuit Court reasoned that the public expects elected officials to be openly partisan.… Read More