A huge thanks to Adam Day of Sycuan for sending the attached survey results and memo along. Some excerpts… Survey Shows Duncan D. Hunter with Comfortable Lead In 52nd Congressional District Republican Primary Race El Cajon, CA (May 12, 2008) – In a survey of 400 registered voters in the 52nd Congressional district, Duncan D. Hunter, son of current Congressman Duncan Hunter, enjoys a substantial lead over other candidates in the race with 79% voter support.

Sycuan frequently conducts public opinion polling on a wide range of regional issues and election topics and shares the results with the public. This survey of voters in the 52nd Congressional District, where Sycuan is located, also asked voters about key issues in the race. Winning the War on Terror and illegal immigration were the top priorities for voters in this congressional race.

A summary of the survey results from Dr. Richard Maullin of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates is attached. — According to our recent survey, Duncan D. Hunter holds a massive lead over the field seeking the Republican… Read More

There is an ominous cloud on the horizon and conservative bloggers (and their readers) should beware. Conservative author, blogger and commentator Mark Steyn is about to go on trial in Canada to face charges of spreading “hate and contempt” for Muslims. A chapter of Steyn’s book “America Alone” was published in Canadian magazine Maclean’s, which drew complaints from Islamic Canadians who disagree with Steyn’s warnings about an encroaching Islamic state in Europe and the West.

In Canada, this type of “hate speech” is against the law. British Columbia actually outlaws any images or language “likely to expose a person…to hatred or contempt” for a variety of reasons, including religion, marital status or sexual orientation. So Mark Steyn now finds himself a defendant before both the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission simply because he wrote a book expressing his opinions about a religion and its impact on the world.

… Read More

My friend, conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, is in the political fight of a lifetime, running for an Orange County State Senate seat open due to the departure from the legislature of Dick Ackerman, my State Senator. Walters is running against Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu, who is spending a LOT of money sending out negative mail, and has a particular nasty commercial trashing Mimi that is running heavily on cable television. In that spot, the announcer hurls what is a scathing attack in Republican Orange County — “She voted to put liberal Democrat Fabian Nunez in charge of the Assembly… Twice!” Is it true? Did she? No. But read on… But I will say up front that Mimi did something that every other Assembly Republican has done… Buckle up your seatbelt for this information that I am going to share, because it makes one scratch their head to hear that this actually happens in the State Assembly…

Let me start that by saying that in Washington, D.C., the vote to… Read More

This really just happened. He came from near the east side pond. I guess this confirms that Bonnie must have kissed her frog. Alas the Capitol security had to subdue and take the would-be Prince away before he could enter the building…

see previously the Bee’s caption contest featuring Bonnie pictured with her frog.… Read More

It is never a good thing to talk about elections in the middle of an election. I already know that, if there are responses to what I write, they will be mostly ad hominem. The conservative movement, however, is worth the criticism. As a political force, the conservative movement is dying in California, and it is dying because too many of our conservative leaders have allowed their personal agendas to trump the principles they claim to espouse.

Let me first explain what I mean. I don’t count consultants as conservative leaders. They will pick up the cause of whoever writes the check. One problem is that too many activists confuse consultants with principle. They believe that political consultants actually believe in more than the fifteen per cent they collect from their clients. The fact is that consultants serve candidates or their pocketbook, not causes. They are an important part of the political process but they cannot drive it. They have to feed their family first, and that need too often trumps principle.They are the tacticians, they are not the leaders. The two cannot be confused if we ever wish to create a… Read More

It is never a good thing to talk about elections in the middle of an election. I already know that, if there are responses to what I write, they will be mostly ad hominem. The conservative movement, however, is worth the criticism. As a political force, the conservative movement is dying in California, and it is dying because too many of our conservative leaders have allowed their personal agendas to trump the principles they claim to espouse.

Let me first explain what I mean. I don’t count consultants as conservative leaders. They will pick up the cause of whoever writes the check. One problem is that too many activists confuse consultants with principle. They believe that political consultants actually believe in more than the fifteen per cent they collect from their clients. The fact is that consultants serve candidates or their pocketbook, not causes. They are an important part of the political process but they cannot drive it. They have to feed their family first, and that need too often trumps principle.They are the tacticians, they are not the leaders. The two cannot be confused if we ever wish to create a… Read More

I was going to write this anyway, but since the Bee ran a story with my comments about Tom McClintock today, I figured I better get a correction out as quickly as possible. You would think that after 15 years of dealing with the press, I would know better how to talk to the press. But I guess I don’t. So I am going to issue the correction that the Bee never will to the comments I made to the reporter.

It is no secret that Tom and I have had our set of disagreements over time, mostly over strategy. I endorsed Schwarzenegger in the recall, mainly because I believed (and still believe) that since conservatives started the recall, we had to finish it with a victory. At the time I endorsed Schwarzenegger, he was tied with Bustamante, and since I believed that Tom couldn’t raise the money to win, I did what I believed was in the best long term interest of the conservative movement. I have been less than underwhelmed with the gratitude that the Governor has shown for the huge risk that I took in my own political career on his behalf, but I didn’t do it for him anyway, so I don’t take his ingratitude personally. The only bad part aboutthe… Read More

I have gotten a few notes from folks asking me why I did not talk about the State Senate in my earlier post on how Republicans should not participate in coronating Democrats as Speakers.

To be honest, I didn’t leave out the Senate for any reason other than it is the Assembly that votes for a Speaker tomorrow…

That said, Republicans in the State Senate also need to change how they do things. Apparently, over there, there’s an actual roll call vote for President Pro-Tempore where GOPers have for some time been voting for the Demcrat. Ugh!

When the vote comes up for Steinberg, Republicans should be placing Dave Cogdill’s name into nomination. He will lose, but that’s to be expected. But having Republicans vote for a Republican, and not a Democrat, is the right thing to do for all of the reasons outlined in my earlier post.… Read More