In case you missed it, Time magazine’s annual "Person of the Year" was bestowed on YOU, "citizens of the new digital democracy." According to the Associated Press, "the winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web."

Of all the YOUs in this fair land, I can’t think of anyone better thanJon Fleischman and FR, the stable of bloggers and the many readers…the onesinstrumental in the last year for using and creating content on the WWW that helped drive the digital democracy in California.

Congratulations to all of YOU, but especially to Jon and the FlashReport. Next stop for FR….the cover of The Nation and Mother Jones. That’s when we’ll know we’ve really gone legit.

In the meantime, directly from AP online:

NEW YORK (AP)… Read More

Republican Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard has been fostering an ongoing discussion about the California Republican Party’s Victory Program (Get-Out-The-Vote). He posts over on his blog here, but gives me leave to post his stuff over here, too. So his latest thoughts are below, and a few blog posts down, Brandon Powers has posted a memo from the CRP Board of Directors on some of these issues… FROM BILL LEONARD In my November 20th newsletter I asked for a financial and performance audit of the California Republican Party’s 2006 campaign effort. While I have learned a lot since then thanks to conversations with key party and Schwarzenegger campaign officials, it is still important that we look at what happened, what worked, and what did not work and why. … Read More

It looks like our own California Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan is going to be elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee!

The primary governing body of the national Republican Party is the Republican National Committee. This body is made up of around 170 or so people — three from each state and also representation from some United States territories. Each state has on the RNC its Chairman, as well as a Committeeman and a Committeewoman. Each individual state decides how it elects these important offices. In California, since a change in the Party Rules that was in effect in 1996, the State Republican Party Central Committee has elected our Committeeman and Committeewoman, Tim Morgan and Barbara Alby, respectively. Of course the same CRP delegates elect our Chairman, currently Duf Sundheim and come February, Ron Nehring (Ron is unopposed in his ascendancy into the Chairmanship – he is currently Vice Chairman of the State GOP). As you can tell, the RNC is a… Read More

It looks like our own California Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan is going to be elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee!

The primary governing body of the national Republican Party is the Republican National Committee. This body is made up of around 170 or so people — three from each state and also representation from some United States territories. Each state has on the RNC its Chairman, as well as a Committeeman and a Committeewoman. Each individual state decides how it elects these important offices. In California, since a change in the Party Rules that was in effect in 1996, the State Republican Party Central Committee has elected our Committeeman and Committeewoman, Tim Morgan and Barbara Alby, respectively. Of course the same CRP delegates elect our Chairman, currently Duf Sundheim and come February, Ron Nehring (Ron is unopposed in his ascendancy into the Chairmanship – he is currently Vice Chairman of the State GOP). As you can tell, the RNC is a… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest authored by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association. Coupal takes the opportunity to offer his perspective on the healthcare proposal recently released by State Senate President Don Perata…

Senate leader Don Perata has a plan to provide all uninsured working Californians with Health Insurance at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion without a tax increase. Okay…

The Perata plan would force businesses that do not provide health insurance, and their employees, through a payroll deduction, to pay into a state agency that would attempt to negotiate for “affordable” coverage. When paying taxes, workers would have to show proof of medical insurance.

**There is more – click the… Read More

The Orange County Registrar of Voter is a nice guy. Neal Kelley breaks the mold of the chain smoking, old school government employee.

I have written about him before and praised his use of technology. Today I have to mention it again.

On Election Day I voted using a provisional ballot because I had moved and not re-registered. I could have just voted the absentee ballot that was sent to my office–I knew that my new house was in all the same political subdivisions all the way down to water district. But it was the “signing under the penalty of perjury” that I could not bring myself to do. Because it specifically states that you must LIVE in the precinct in which you are voting.

So I ended up going to my old polling place and voting provisionally. The nice poll workers gave me a card with a “provisional retrieval code” and a call-in number. They said to wait a few weeks and then call to see if my vote was counted.

I forgot about it until today when I came across the card. All I did was call the number 1-888-OCVOTES and press ‘4’ to check the stats of my provisional ballot, enter my code and it… Read More

From Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard:

***Huge Tax Hike on Beer Drinkers***

State law is full of gray areas and ambiguities. One old one is now the real culprit in this week’s headlines. When the Legislature wrote the first alcohol laws after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, California defined what a beer is and what wine is. The definition was simple – anything added to beer or wine renders it something else. Sometime thereafter beer and wine producers started adding things such as preservatives, flavor enhancers and other things. So narrowly reading the law there is NO such product as either beer or wine sold in California today. Now common sense and alcohol regulators know that is not true and so for years have ignored this narrow… Read More

Based, at least in part, on questions raised on this blog about the performance of the CRP’s Victory Program, the CRP sent out the following email today. I anxiously await the thoughts of Mike Spence and the otherswho’ve joined in questioning the Victory program.

TO: Republican Activists and Donors

FR: California Republican Party Board of Directors

RE: California Republican Party Board of Directors Meeting:

December 8, 2006

Some people, through comments and other communications, have raised questions of the California Republican Party (CRP) Board of Directors they wanted addressed at our December Board Meeting. The Board of Directors met on December 8, 2006 to discuss… Read More