Just wanted to verify Jubal’s (Matt Cunningham) scoop – the CRP Board of Directors just voted unanimously to confirm Bill Christiansen as an interim Chief Operating Officer of the party. Bill has agreed to serve until he is replaced.

I caught up with Steve Schmidt, formerly the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger last year, who worked extremely closely with Bill, and he was very pleased with the quick, decisive action of bringing Bill onboard, adding, "The selection of Bill to be the CRP’s new interim COO is an outstanding one. He was the director of our party-based Victory Operations last election cycle, and I was one of a great many who were impressed with him. He is experienced and well qualified."… Read More

Readers will know I have been covering progress of the Wisconsin Right to Life case, which challenges the portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law that bans late election issue advocacy communications that mention a candidate’s name, but do not contain words of express advocacy of election/defeat of a candidate. The Supreme Court today decided the case in favor of the First Amendment rights of Wisconsin Right to Life, an Internal Revenue CodeSection 501(c)(4) advocacy organization. This is a big win for issue advocacy speech in an election context and couldchange the way issues are addressed in an election context — it means nonprofit advocacy groups funded by unions and corporations will not be afraid to speak out during election periods on the records of legislators and candidates, as long as their underlyingintent is to address their issue, and not the election itself. The court, in a 5-4 vote, upheld an appeals court ruling thatthe anti-abortion group should have been allowed to air ads during the final two months before the 2004 elections. The ads asked voters to contact the state’s two senators, Democrats… Read More

I am participating in a national conference call right now with election lawyers and professors, and am concluding that the consensus view is that the Supreme Court’s decision today in Wisconsin Right to Life does gut McCain-Feingold, but also establishes a new standard for regulated electorial speech: express advocacy of a candidate PLUS words about candidate character/qualifications/fitness for office. And interestingly this is anEXPANSION of the old Buckley v. Valeo case. Nevertheless, the sum is less regulation of speech in elections. If a policy-oriented communication from a nonprofit, corporation or union avoids the types of words mentioned above,it can mention candidates and be outside the realm of FEC/FPPC regulation. This is a big win for the First Amendment, because McCain-Feingold banned such communications based on timing, regardless of content. Thus, the new analysis is content-based, ad-by-ad, so political consultants: careful review of text is critical.… Read More

Attached is former GOP COO Michael Kamburowski’s 2005 lawsuit filed in United States District Court (New York) against U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.… Read More

Jubal at the Red County/OC Blog has the news. This is a great move by the CRP to aggressively and quickly address yesterday’s fallout:

Bill Christiansen To Be Interim COO of the CRP

I’ve learned Bill Christiansen, former long-time executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County, will be tapped as the interim COO of the California Republican Party.Read it all here. … Read More

Hope Springs Eternal?… Just when you thought the Bush Administration had completely annihilated any chance of Republicans winning the White House in 2008, and Ralph Nader lifts his siphon hose again.

Well, at least some folks are saying that. But, let’s not forget that after largely being considered the Gore spoiler in 2000, last go-round Democrats and Greens rejected him in spades and Nader garnered only one-third of one percent of the vote. That downward trajectory may continue to progress for the progressive.

We can laugh about Michael Bloomberg "leaving" the GOP all we want, but his potential clout would be superior to Nader’s in any vote siphoning scenario.

No, Nader or not, Republicans are going to have to win it on their own. That starts with the current Administration. And, that’s what I fear the most.

Sunroad San Diego… Scott Lewis in Voice of San Diego asked the essential question on Friday:

Now that everyone admits the city wrongfully approved the Sunroad… Read More

Let me make sure I have it straight. After I posted the other day on the CRP’s hiring of Chris Matthews as reported in the SF Chron, I get a PEED OFF phone call from a high-up in the State GOP (one that does not write for the FR), essentially ticked that I would repeat anything in that paper, and asking why I would purposely extend a prior week’s story into a second week.

My answer: Many were talking about it, but few were writing about it. It deserved to be vetted and debated. And, I believed I had provided both sides … and would let the commenters drive the debate. They did.

As well, I indicated to the caller that I would try to verify the story with them in the future.

Then, I get attacked on other blogs for a perceived defense of the CRP, when in actuality many wouldn’t have even known of the hirings without my FR posts.

Then, I put myself out there more by suggesting Ron Nehring wouldn’t hire anyone unqualified — citizen or not — and saying it looked like the CRP had followed the rules — like it or not about the non-citizens (which is also a legitimate debate).

Of course,… Read More

9:45 pm Update: Check out the NY Sun article, including this:

"The California Republican Party Operations Committee held a teleconference tonight with Mike Kamburowski where he offered his resignation, which has been accepted," the state party chairman, Ronald Nehring, said in a terse statement e-mailed to The New York Sun. "We thank him for his service."———————————- Brandon has it below and Red County SB has it as well. I’ll assume that’s good as gold. I’ll look forward to an official statement from the CRP.

That said, Kamburowski’s resignation was not the noble thing to do. In this case, it is largely irrelevant whether the feds were wrong in any arrest or deportation procedure, even if thenow former COO was 100% in the right. From a PR standpoint, what is relevant is that it happened and that it wasn’t fully disclosed by the job applicant, thus calling into question his judgment.

The noble thing… Read More