Who does a California conservative support for President?

The top tier of candidates — John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani — must all overcome varying amounts of suspicion from the GOP base. The second tier of candidates — Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, and Jim Gilmore — have to make a credible case that they can win. Without a natural candidate around which to rally, conservatives are forced to decide which of the front-runners they can trust. The developments so far have been fascinating to watch.

My former boss McCain was the insurgent when I worked for him in 1999 and 2000, when he was anethema to a party establishment had flocked to then-Governor Bush. Eight years later, though, McCain is now the establishment candidate, using his strong support of Bush on terror and Iraq to develop an organizational and endorsement infrastructure that early front-runners have historically used to ward off challengers. Watching this year from the sidelines,… Read More

I just received the following obviously-quickly-written missive from MoveAmericaForward.org, and had to laugh.

BIG BIG NEWS!!!

Dr. Laura Schlesinger, the 4th highest radio talk show host in the nation, is urging her listeners to support Move America Forward’s "THESE COLORS DON’T RUN" national pro-troop/patriotic caravan (heading across the nation from Thursday March 8th – Saturday, March 17th) and the "Gathering of Eagles" event that takes place at the culmination of the national caravan.

See her "Call to Action" here: http://www.drlaura.com/action/index.html?mode=view&tile=1&id=13528

Find out where you can join the caravan or attend one of the 2 DOZEN pro-troop/patriotic rallies that will take place along the caravan route here:http://www.MoveAmericaForward.org

OK, I know that Rush has… Read More

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle reports that local Chinese media was barred from Sen. Clinton’s fundraiser at the Sheraton Palace on Friday. They were not included on Clinton’s media list for a press release on the event, and when reporter, Portia Li, arrived to cover the event, she was told that no “foreign press” was allowed. The incident was considered quite a snub, and though the Clinton camp apologized, the Chronicle reports that tension remains.

The first thing that went through my mind when I read this article was.doesn’t the Clinton campaign have someone knowledgeable on the ground in San Francisco who can help them avoid such a provincial faux pas?

And then it hit me: this is Nancy Pelosi’s home turf.

Can we infer anything about the relationship between Pelosi and Clinton if the former allows the latter to make such a blunder? San Francisco is no small media market for Democrats in a presidential primary. This could get very interesting.… Read More

Los Angeles County has numerous elections on March 6. One interesting race is the Redondo Beach race for City Treasurer. It features long time GOP incumbent Ernie O’Dell and a comeback for former Redondo Beach Mayor and GOP Assembly candidate Greg Hill. See previous FR Post on Hill’s candidacy. Need less to say this race has split friends of both and Republicans. Take a look at the story here.

Note to O’Dell: Endorsements by other city Treasurers probably doesn’t help you in RB. You are already considered qualified because you have been there 12 years… Read More

Well, sort of. It looks like the Long Beach City Council’s attempt to dictate to hotels what kind of union deals they must sign will be put to a vote of the people. The plan denies workers the right to vote. Today, the hotels will submit the signatures needed for a referendum. See here.Previous FR Post can be seen here.… Read More

There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about the effects of term-limits, as efforts are underway to create an additional election next February for an earlier California Presidential primary that some cynics believe is only taking place so that current legislative leaders can have one more crack at trying to relax term-limits before they themselves are forced to retire from office. Well, one impact of our current limits of three two-year terms in the State’s lower house is that, on the GOP side, well over a third of the seats held by the GOP will be "open seats" next year. Over the next few weeks, I will be attempting to take a closer look, well over a year out, at how the races are shaping up in these open GOP seats. Of course, the challenge of looking at the action in the seats this early is that one never knows who might get into the races later, and… Read More

There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about the effects of term-limits, as efforts are underway to create an additional election next February for an earlier California Presidential primary that some cynics believe is only taking place so that current legislative leaders can have one more crack at trying to relax term-limits before they themselves are forced to retire from office. Well, one impact of our current limits of three two-year terms in the State’s lower house is that, on the GOP side, well over a third of the seats held by the GOP will be "open seats" next year. Over the next few weeks, I will be attempting to take a closer look, well over a year out, at how the races are shaping up in these open GOP seats. Of course, the challenge of looking at the action in the seats this early is that one never knows who might get into the races later, and… Read More

The razor sharp close count in the recount in the results of the special election to fill the Orange County First Supervisorial seat vacated by Lou Correa when he was sworn into the Senate continues to slowly move along. This is the race where the top two vote gettings, Janet and Trung Ngyuen (no relation), ended up with just a seven vote margin between them, tilted in Trung’s direction. For most of last week and continuing into today, there has been a relatively agonizing recount taking place. The best place to read all of the latest on this is over at Matt Cunningham’s OC Blog/Red County website.

That said, below is a video courtesy of our friends at the OC Register’s Total Buzz Blog, where reporter Peggy Lowe has been down at the Registrar. It would appear that their video camera caught Trung Nguyen’s top legal beagle, Attorney Michael Schroder, telling NBC4 reporter Vikki Vargas the latest details on why, despite an apparent shift in the lead from Trung to Janet, all of the ballots must be counted… … Read More