A friend forwarded this memo from the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board which has some tough words for those who dare to send documents to the Board that are not properly hole punched. I kid you not. Check this out for your laugh of the day.… Read More

This morning, the dominant headlines in California concerning Presidential politics are the results of a Field Poll that show, among Democrats, Al Gore is the most popular candidate – and he’s not even running. In the absence of the Academy Award winner, Hillary Clinton holds a commanding lead.

Also big in the news are all of the fundraising numbers from the Presidential campaigns, which I will touch on in my commentary in about an hour.

In the midst of all of this news, the McCain for President campaign shot out a news release about three minutes ago (see the attachment below) sharing with us that former California legislator JIm Brulte is now onboard with the Arizona Senator’s campaign for the White House. Brulte served as Senate Republican Leader before term-limits brought his legislative career to an end. The Senator is known as a politically savvy pol, and his endorsement is a feather in the cap of McCain’s California campaign.… Read More

Today there is a lot of news to cover… GOP PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS The big story is that GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney didn’t just ‘win’ the contest for fundraising over his main rivals Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, he clobbered them. This was an important first step for Romney, who needs to show that he is a viable national candidate. But the big test lies ahead — which is whether Romney can spend his campaign money as effectively as he can raise it. We’ll be looking closely at what Romney does here in California over the coming months. Giuliani and McCain enjoy much more name identification among California GOP voters… I was actually surprised at McCain’s showing on the fundraising front. All three campaigns tried to downplay expectations before the big announcements. Romney hit the home run, of course. Giuliani scored a… Read More

Today there is a lot of news to cover… GOP PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS The big story is that GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney didn’t just ‘win’ the contest for fundraising over his main rivals Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, he clobbered them. This was an important first step for Romney, who needs to show that he is a viable national candidate. But the big test lies ahead — which is whether Romney can spend his campaign money as effectively as he can raise it. We’ll be looking closely at what Romney does here in California over the coming months. Giuliani and McCain enjoy much more name identification among California GOP voters… I was actually surprised at McCain’s showing on the fundraising front. All three campaigns tried to downplay expectations before the big announcements. Romney hit the home run, of course. Giuliani scored a… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail, our ‘virtual’ FR Correspondent John Fund:

Daddy Warbucks

Why did Senator Dianne Feinstein of California suddenly resign as chair of a powerful military appropriations subcommittee last week? That’s the question much of Washington is asking, and liberal government watchdog groups are apparently not going to give her a pass on the issue. They believe her withdrawal is linked to her subcommittee’s allocation of millions of dollars in defense contracts to companies partly owned by her husband.

The story began two months ago when Metro Newspapers, a group of alternative weeklies in northern California,… Read More

The race for the 60th Assembly District has plenty of intrigue. The current Assemblyman Bob Huff does not have an ordained successor. No one on his staff is running. The district has parts of three counties in it. You can see my previous post on this race here. Yesterday I met with one of the candidates running for this seat, Chino Hills Mayor Curt Hagman. I have to admit when I heard he was bail bondsman, I was wondering who gets into that kind of business. Turns out he started as a Private Investigator. … Read More

Conventional wisdom has the 36th AD has a match up between Steve Knight Palmdale City Councilman and son of the late, legendary Senator Pete Knight (See here) and the liberal Mayor of Palmdale Jim Ledford. (See here.) Another candidate has filed a committee to run: Steve Fox. Fox was an elected member of the Antelope Valley Hospital board. He was defeated in 2004. (BTW: These races are real barnburners in the Antelope Valley. Really.). Steve then got elected to the Antelope Valley Community College Board in 2005. He is a member of the California Congress of Republicans. I spoke to him a couple times over the years. If I remember right he did fill out a pro-life questionnaire- the right way. Of course with the money and name ID of the others, he will have to find $$ as well. A third candidate-this one more Lancaster based will stir things up a bit.

No word of a candidate from… Read More

Paul Hegyi, who’s worn many hats over the past few years – Campaign Manager to Tony Strickland, Chief of Staff (and before that, Campaign Manager) to Van Tran, Campaign Manager to Shirley Horton, before that, time with Mark Wyland, etc – is tossing his hat in the ring to run for Assemblyman Nakanishi’s termed out seat next year.

Paul, who grew up in the district – going to high school and college in the area – and who now owns a home there, has been putting the pieces together to mount a strong campaign. No stranger to the campaign world, Paul assuredly will have a first-rate grassroots effort behind him. He’s been a part of some of the toughest races in California over the past few years, notably as Campaign Manager to Shirley Horton.

In addition, having been a part of campaigns in so many regions of the state, Paul is unique among would-be campaign/legislative staff-turned-politicians. Unlike some who’ve spent their whole careers pigeonholed in one spot, Paul has worked with the donor communities in San Diego, in Orange… Read More