Today the Governor made 27 more appointments into State Government — 9 Republicans and 6 Democrats.

I spoke with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Communications Director, Adam Mendelsohn, before lunch today. Adam was calling to let FR readers in on the scoop – Governor Schwarzenegger has tapped a new Press Secretary to replace the retiring Margita Thompson.

His name is Aaron McLear and Mendelsohn says he was the regional Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee for the Northeastern Area, and that prior to that he was Communications Director for the Bush ’04 reelection campaign for Ohio. Before that, he worked for Governor Taft…

We’ll work on getting more info on this new member of the Governor’s senior staff! Thanks, Adam for the heads up!… Read More

If the reports are true that newly-minted California Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney is the #1 target of national Republicans to retake this central California Congressional seat formerly held by Richard Pombo, then a decision by a Federal court yesterday emasculating much of the McCain-Feingold soft money restrictions could mean that McNerney will be in for a "soft money" brusing.

The Federal case, brought by Wisconsin Right to Life, challenged the portion of the McCain-Feingold reforms that restricts "issue ads" in the final days of a Federal election campaign. McCain-Feingold, as previously upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, essentially bans use of "soft money" (corporate or union funds) for any mass media advertisement in the final 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election that mentions a candidate’s name, even if the ad doesn’t specifically include words of advocacy such as "vote for," or "vote against." Wisconsin Right to Life claimed the law restricted their ability to criticize Wisconsin’s U.S. Senators by name for their votes on abortion legislation. A Federal… Read More

A federal court today significantly weakened the so-called "soft money" rules of the McCain-Feingold bill by declaring that the late campaign restriction against mentioning Federal candidates names in issue-oriented mass media advertising of so-callled "527 committees" is unconstitutional. ("527" refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code that provide these entities tax exemption). The effect of the ruling will be to allow unlimited corporate, union, and special interest funding of issue ads supporting or attacking Federal candidates by name, but which do not specifically urge their election or defeat, during an election campaign.

The 2-1 decisionby a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Courtfor the District of Columbia will now likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Your author’s opinion is that the ruling is a victory for the First Amendment. But who knows how the Supreme Court will respond?!

In a second significant ruling in California, the Supreme Court here in a split decision ruled today that Indian tribes are bound by FPPC disclosure rules. More than 100 tribes are major donors in… Read More

California’s Republican National Committeeman is Tim Morgan of Santa Cruz. Tim was elected to this post by the California Republican Party Membership back in 1996, and re-elected subsequently in both 2000 and 2004. Tim has penned a column, which is below, in which he calls for the upcoming races for California Republican Party office to be "spirited, vision packed and respectful" – I present his views for your reading pleasure. I suppose this also a good time to express my appreciation to Tim, as when I announced my candidacy for Vice-Chairman, South of the CRP, Tim was one of the very first to endorse me. Thanks, Tim!

… Read More

California’s Republican National Committeeman is Tim Morgan of Santa Cruz. Tim was elected to this post by the California Republican Party Membership back in 1996, and re-elected subsequently in both 2000 and 2004. Tim has penned a column, which is below, in which he calls for the upcoming races for California Republican Party office to be "spirited, vision packed and respectful" – I present his views for your reading pleasure. I suppose this also a good time to express my appreciation to Tim, as when I announced my candidacy for Vice-Chairman, South of the CRP, Tim was one of the very first to endorse me. Thanks, Tim!

… Read More

Steve Schmidt, Campaign Manager to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his re-election campaign, has taken on a consulting role with the candidacy of John McCain for President of the United States.

H/T to Chris Cillizza over at the Washington Post for the scoop on this news.

FR caught up with Schmidt, who told us: "I am very excited to part a part of Senator McCain’s team."

Now – as to whether this gives McCain a leg up on a coveted endorsement in the primary from Governor Schwarzegger — that is unclear. But you can be sure that Schmidt will be sure to keep his former boss very close to the goings-on in the McCain operations.

This news doesn’t really come as a surprise to most political insiders. I had heard it a while back. But it is, perhaps, a testament to Schmidt’s relationships with those of us who report on such things. Out of deference to him, I didn’t report on it first.… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger conducted a healthcare ’round table’ discussion with an assortment of various people who would have different perspectives on the healhcare issue. In connection with that, the Governor had a press availability. You can see the streaming video of his chat with the media on the issue of healthcare, and Q&A on the Governor’s website here.

Here is an excerpt of the Governor’s remarks relative to increasing taxes as a potential means towards dealing with the ‘broken healthcare system’: I think it is very important that as you go and put the final touches on, and introduce our proposals, that everyone understands that taxes is not on the table, because there is no reason to increase taxes, because that would mean that I want to punish the people twice. They are already punished. The people are already punished with the hidden tax. You see, that is the thing that we don’t want to do. Everyone here that has healthcare is… Read More