It’s been interesting to watch therace for National Committeeman unfold, as the campaigns beingwagedhave been as different as the canddiates themselves.

Challenger Shawn Steel has stuck to what’s worked time and again in CRP races. Highlight what you’ve done – in Shawn’s case shinging a light on having narrowed the registration gap in the state, and having overseen the Party the last time we picked up any Legislative seats.Showcase endorsements.For Shawn that being an overwhelming majority of State Assemblymen, and bunches and bunches of other electeds and County Chairs. Shawn has put together a very strong race, one you’d frankly normally only expect from an incumbent. If Shawn turns his people out, or gathers their Proxies, (and there’s no reason to expect he won’t)he’s in good shape.

Incumbent Tim Morgan is running, let’s say, a more low key, more unconventional race. Instead of touting endorsements en masse, building to a crescendo with displays of support nearing the Convention, Tim has chosen to really only trumpet one endorsement (that I can recall) and instead fill delegates’… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: FR readers, please do NOT react to this post by sending us your event flyers or requests to publicize your events. Jim’s wife is appearing at the conference below, so we’ll let him off the hook. But we do not, as a rule, advertise events on the blog. That said, this looks like a good one. Thanks. – Flash]

A high-octane Election law seminar produced by Lorman Education Services is scheduled for April 16, 2008 in Santa Monica at the DoubleTree at 1707 4th St. in Santa Monica.

The day-long event will feature presentations by experienced professionals on California and Federal election law, political and advocacy activities of tax-exempt organizations, candidate activities of so-called "527" groups after the recent Wisconsin Right to Life decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, issue advocacy, independent expenditures, voting systems and voting procedures, initiatives and referenda, and a practicum on regulation of political advertising and voter persuasion.

Confirmed speakers at the seminar include Chuck Bell, senior partner of Bell,… Read More

UPDATE: For those who have PowerPoint, you can download the attachment below and walk yourself through a slide-by-slide presentation of data.

Longtime FR Friend Jamie Fisfis is a principal with Chariot Research. His firm does work literally all over the globe. But they just came out of the field with a survey of California voters, giving us a glimpse of where things are in these final days before the Florida primary, to take place this Thursday.

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From Fisfis: "We have just completed a survey of 800 likely primary voters in an effort to gauge pre-Florida primary numbers. On the Democrat side, Hilary Clinton (38% dem) maintains a significant lead concentrated in the bay are an driven by a broad range of issues. By contrast, Obama (18% dem) and Edwards (12.4% dem) are gaining their numbers based upon their strengths among foreign policy and… Read More

John McCain, the U.S. Senator from Arizona with a supposed lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of 82.3 (even though in 2006 – the most recent rating – it was a very liberal 65), yesterday severely damaged his self-congratulatory character in … Read More

UPDATE: For those who have PowerPoint, you can download the attachment below and walk yourself through a slide-by-slide presentation of data.

Longtime FR Friend Jamie Fisfis is a principal with Chariot Research. His firm does work literally all over the globe. But they just came out of the field with a survey of California voters, giving us a glimpse of where things are in these final days before the Florida primary, to take place this Thursday.

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From Fisfis:

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Assemblyman Bob Huff has introduced a piece of legislation that seems like a good idea to me. AB 1808 would allow candidates for federal office (U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives) to pay for and submit ballot statements to be put before the voters, much in the way that candidates for state and local office can today.

As long as candidate statements are offered to lower level office seekers, I see no reason why candidates for federal office shouldn’t have the same opportunity.

Something tells me that someone will come up with a reason it isn’t legal, per McCain-Feingold or some other federal law. But hopefully not.

Great idea Assemblyman Huff.… Read More

Due to enough e-mails, I have decided to consent and once again start writing more about Governor Schwarzenegger’s appointments. So as they come out (usually weekly), I will look them over and pick one to highlight. I should add that I didn’t have enough fingers on my left hand to count the number of Democrats that he appointed to the bench (including one to the prestigious Court of Appeals) last Friday.

Anyways… Cythnia Dellums…

I don’t think there is a family that truly hates and despises the American system of capitalism more than the Dellums family of Oakland. As a longtime Member of Congress, Ron Dellums frequently trashed America, and openly considered himself to be a leader of the "socialist caucus" within the Democrat Party back there.

So it is comforting to know that Dellums, now the Mayor of Oakland, is celebrating the appointment by our Republican Governor of his wife, Cynthia, to the Commission on the Status of Women.

No doubt thrilling news for the fine activists of the Alameda County GOP…… Read More

Recently I was chatting with Assemblyman Mike Duvall. As has been the case many times since he was sworn in the legislature just over a year ago, he was sharing we met yet another story of how our state government bureaucracy seems to be specifically designed to be dysfunctional. In the case that the Assemblyman outlines below, he is actually going to try and do something about it. I asked him to pen something for FR readers, so here it is… While the topic of "grade separations" isn’t sexy, this is just one of a pile of examples of how messed up things are in Sacramento…

GRADE SEPARATION FUNDING GETS A FAILING GRADE By Assemblyman Mike Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) … Read More