My first encounter with the "Thomas Machine" was in 1995 as the newly elected Vice Chair Central of the State Party. I travelled to Kern County to meet with Mark Abernathy, who I had never met previously, and Kevin McCarthy, then a young staffer whom I HAD met previously and liked. My mission: get the Thomas endorsement for my Vice Chair campaign.

After exchanging pleasantries and such, the first question from Abernathy was: "are you supporting Phil Wyman for Senate?" At the time, Wyman was running against Democrat Jim Costa. Of course I was supporting him. But, when I said yes, that was pretty much it. Meeting over. That kind of vindictive politics has been experienced hundreds of times over and over again in Kern.

I would win the race with the endorsement of every elected official in Central California except Bill Thomas. And I found out what kind of organization he did indeed run. And over the years, I took them on often.

There is a chance for peace now in the County, which was our own little "Middle East" in the Central Valley, with non stop factional… Read More

Jon Fleischman, FR’s publisher, has asked me to do a recap of some of the goings on at the CRA convention. The first thing one notices about the CRA Convention in Bakersfield was how successful it was. We had a great turnout out all three days. The Salute to Don Rogers, the McClintock Lunch and the Tom Tancredo Dinner all required more tables to be put up. The Bakersfield Republican Assembly did a great job. The funniest thing to me was the a news report in the Bakersfield area talking about the convention, then shifted to Kern County/ Bill Thomas political consultant Cathy Abernathy talking about how the CRA was irrelevant. I had to laugh. Every local official from State Senator Ashburn, Assemblyman Bill Maize, The Sheriff, the Mayor, Several City council members, Former Assemblyman Wyman and Harvey all came by. As did…drum roll please..Assembly GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. Not too bad … Read More

14 term (yes, 28 years to you and me) moderate Republican Congressman Bill Thomas of Bakersfield has formally announced that he is retiring from the United States House of Representatives at the end of this year. Thomas is a high-ranking member of the House, this year finishing up his third term (sixth year) as Chairman of the power Ways & Means Committee.

I’ve obviously made no bones in my past writings about Thomas that I think he has been a poor member of Congress. At a time when we have seen federal spending rise 33% since the GOP liberated Congress from the Democrats in the 1994 "Contract with America" elections that propelled Newt Gingrich into the Speaker’s chair, Bill Thomas has symbolized, to me, our spending problems.

Well, with Thomas’ announcement, I am sure that much will be written about him (I will… Read More

[UPDATE: According to sources this poll was actually conducted LAST SUMMER just days after Umberg’s affair was exposed in the press. Subsequent polling shows Umberg BEATING Correa by almost 2-to-1.]

Dick Rosengarten reports in the this weeks edition of his CALPEEK newsletter on CA politics that OC Supervisor Lou Correa is trouncing Assemblyman Tom Umberg in the race for the Democrat nomination in the 34th Senate District (Central Orange County including Santa Ana). According to Rosengarten, J. Moore Methods, Inc. (James Moore) a Dem pollster conducted the poll among 34th Senate District Democrats on behalf of State Senate President Don Perata.

I find it hard to believe that these are first run ballot test numbers. A sitting county supervisor (former legislator) vs. a member of the state assembly (present and past) should be a lot closer… Read More

WHALEN ON WESTLY Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a lot of things going for him as he runs for re-election this year. But certainly one of the best things going is the poor quality of the two Democrats seeking the Democratic Party nomination – State Treasurer Phil Angelides, and State Controller Steve Westly. Last Monday, FR correspondent Dan Schnur wrote a great piece on Angelides, and today we feature a column penned by our own Bill Whalen on Steve Westly, who Whalen points out is ‘too cute by half’ – a definate ‘must read’ for today! WILL THOMAS RETIRE? WE HOPE SO! … Read More

With Democrat 1St District OC Supervisor (former Assemblyman) Lou Correa running for the 34th Senate District, it is worth speculating on who would run for his supervisorial seat if Correa won.

Republicans failed to rally around one good candidate for the senate seat. Electoral favorite Assemblyman Van Tran decided to seek re-election so Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher is left to face off with conservative anti-illegal alien activist Lupe Moreno.

Correa is mid-term running safe, so there would be no race for supervisor unless Correa won the Primary (vs. Assemblyman Tom Umberg) and then beat the Republican in a district that gives a less than 2% registration advantage to Democrats today—and will be even or GOP plurality by… Read More

The leaders and delegates of the state’s most influential conservative Republican volunteer organization, the California Republican Assembly, met in Bakersfield over the weekend. Bakersfield, of course, is in the center of Bill Thomas’ Congressional District.

In light of the news late last week that the Congressman was going to hold a press conference this morning to announce plans for his future (which have turned out to be welcome news of his retirement), the delegates to the CRA’s annual convention passed a resolution concerning Bill Thomas which is attached for your perusal.

** An an important note – disdain and dislike for Bill Thomas is widespread. It is notable that this particular resolution was authored by Brandon Powers, who in… Read More

Democrat Santa Ana City Councilwoman and OC Deputy District Attorney Claudia Alvarez is running for the 69th Assembly District. Her campaign just released the results of a new poll conducted Feb. 22-26 among 402 likely Democratic Primary voters. The survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research shows Alvarez leading opponent (council colleague) Jose Solorio by a margin of 50% to 25%. The other potential rival de la Libertad fails to break the 10% mark according to the poll.

The poll memo says: Alvarez’s support in the district is broad-based. Her support transcends geographic and ethnic lines as she leads among every ethnic group, and she attracts solid support throughout the district. In fact she is even in a statistical tie with Solorio in his own city council district (Santa Ana’s 1st City Council District).

BALLOT TEST