This column by Governor Schwarzenegger ran today in the L.A. Daily News:

TIME FOR A CHANGE ON HEALTH COVERAGE By Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger One of the most serious problems facing California and our nation is the large number of people without medical insurance. In California, 6.5 million people – more than any other state – have no medical insurance for all or part of the year. Nationally the number is a staggering 47 million. But this is not just a problem for the… Read More

A few days ago, FR Political Law Correspondent Jim Lacy penned his thoughts on a lawsuit filed to try and prevent Jerry Brown from assuming the office of Attorney General. Lacy was critical of the suit. One of the plaintiffs in that suit, Contra Costa County GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, penned the following rebuttal… (Oh, and I am sure we will see a ‘rebuttal of the rebuttal’ from Jim!)

The Rule of Law Still Matters . . .

Brown cannot be “actually entitled to practice” at the same time he is not “entitled to practice law.” By Thomas G. Del Beccaro, Plaintiff in Del Beccaro v. Brown ~~~~~~~~~

The Secretary of State has certified our last election. Therefore, we the Plaintiffs, in the lawsuit Del Beccaro et. al. v. Brown et. al., have amended… Read More

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… Read More

Should California expand the power of recall to include our Congressional delegation?

This could make an interesting prospect for a new ballot initiative. An amendment to the California Constitution that expanded the current law to include "all" elected officials, and which, as a safety value legally, encouraged candidates for Congress to voluntarily submit to the recall process by printing "Voluntarily Agrees to Recall Process" next to their names on the ballot, might make the 2008 election season even more interesting!

California has played a leading historical role in the empowerment of the people through the direct-democracy devices of initiative, referendum, and recall. It was California that was among the first state to enact these tools in 1911. While until the 1980s, California was best known for the initiative process, the use of the recall tool made a big jump forward in the aftermath of the Prop. 13 landslide, and became more than just a local device, when California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird was successfully recalled. Yet there continued to be many other unsuccessful recall efforts of statewide officers —… Read More

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

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… 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