GEORGE PLESCIA BECOMES LEADER Yesterday, with little fanfare, Assembly George Plescia of San Diego County became the new Leader of Assembly Republicans. We’ll be focusing more on Plescia and the challenges ahead of him in the coming weeks. But we want to give FR friend Plescia a hearty congratulations as he assumes his new responsibilities and bigger digs.

Not that he has asked for it, but over the next few weeks, we’ll be offering Plescia some advice in various policy and political matters, starting today with Infrastructure Funding: Assembly Republicans demonstrated that, unified, they could stand in-between legislative Democrats and irresponsible borrowing. As "Big 5" talks continue on the issue of infrastructure investment (i.e…. a massive borrowing package), the ‘deal makers’ should still be:

In what would be the strongest indicator yet that conservative businessman Eric Roach is actively looking at a run in the closed-GOP primary for the full two-year term to represent the 50th Congressional District — Roach has launched a new radio spot.

The spot, which thanks voters for the opportunity to connect with them during the campaign, has Roach talking about what he feels are important issues — such as having a representative of the people, not of special interests – transportation, immigration, budget reform.

When was the last time you heard of a candidate running ads AFTER their election? No, this is a clear sign that Roach is keeping his options open, and keeping his ‘feet in the water’ so-to-speak while he decides what he wants to do.

The donnybrook in the special election favored the moderate Bilbray because of two factors – a fractionalized GOP vote, and the fact that Democrats and Decline-to-State voters could cross over and vote for a Republican… Read More

Logan Jenkins, a columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune, lays out Governor Schwarzenegger for being at fault for the current bizarre predicament facing Republicans and voters in the 50th Congressional District. Republicans just finished a bruising primary where well over a dozen candidates, for the most part overwhelmingly conservative, sliced up the special election vote so much that moderate Brian Bilbray, with about 16% of the vote, won the right to carry the GOP banner against Democrat Francine Busby in the June run-off. To the victor of this one-on-one battle goes the right to fill out the rest of Duke Cunningham’s unexpired term until the end of this year. But what about the next term? The full two years. And, of course, the decades beyond for a safely ensconced politician in a state where the partisan gerrymander ensures that general elections are not competitive? The regular… Read More

Logan Jenkins, a columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune, lays out Governor Schwarzenegger for being at fault for the current bizarre predicament facing Republicans and voters in the 50th Congressional District. Republicans just finished a bruising primary where well over a dozen candidates, for the most part overwhelmingly conservative, sliced up the special election vote so much that moderate Brian Bilbray, with about 16% of the vote, won the right to carry the GOP banner against Democrat Francine Busby in the June run-off. To the victor of this one-on-one battle goes the right to fill out the rest of Duke Cunningham’s unexpired term until the end of this year. But what about the next term? The full two years. And, of course, the decades beyond for a safely ensconced politician in a state where the partisan gerrymander ensures that general elections are not competitive? The regular… Read More

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona won the endorsement of the Republican Central Committee tonight.

FR publisher and vote counting whip king Jon Fleischman ran a great drill and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher batting for Sheriff Mike Carona supported him with kind words and urged the committee to support the Sheriff.

It’s a well deserved endorsement for Mike Carona who has been a great friend to the OCGOP and tons of local GOP candidates.… Read More

He’s Still The Terminator And He Knows It Last week’s California Field Poll found Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tied with state Treasurer Phil Angelides, his best-known potential Democratic opponent. That’s good news given that the Field Poll tilts towards Democrats by surveying "registered voters" rather than "likely voters," a group that represents a more conservative electorate.

The bad news is that Governor Schwarzenegger trails by four points the Democrat who is most likely to be his opponent: Steve Westly, the state comptroller who has now taken an 11-point lead over Mr. Angelides in the Field Poll on the strength of a massive TV ad buy paid for in part by the millions the former businessman earned as an eBay executive during the Internet bubble of the 1990s

Mr. Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings have climbed slightly from their nadir following the defeat of four initiatives he placed on the ballot in last November’s special election. His negatives have also fallen, and there is now a bloc of about 15% of voters who are… Read More

There is no doubt the Busby will receive a score in the "F: range from the National Taxpayers Union. Brian Bilbray was in the "D" range. If you are picking your school academic decathlon team maybe the "D’ student may be better than the one the flunks. But if you have a chance to take an A or even a B+ student or someone with that potential, why wouldn’t you?

Some in the Washington establishment probably wouldn’t because it means dumping a friend or a BYOC. Maybe they know the "D" student better than the high achiever. Maybe he gives everyone candy.

Who cares? This is about winning. Bilbray is a pro- big government Republican that has cast bad votes on taxes, guns , life etc…

The excuse is he had to vote that way to keep his old seat. While pointing out that didn’t seem to work out well, we know from this spin that Bilbray will sacrifice principle to stay in power.

We have enough of those types in our party already. We also have enough "D" students that have betrayed their mandate.

Time for a challenge to set things right. Lets get better players on our team.… Read More

Today at 3:00 p.m., Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be convening a meeting of many of the leaders in California’s ongoing battle against higher taxes. The Governor, along with senior staff members Mike Genest, the State Director of Finance, as well as Deputy Chiefs of Staff Richard Costigan and Dan Dunmoyer will meet with Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assocation, Larry McCarthy, President of the California Taxpayers Association, Lew Uhler, founder and President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, Kris Hunt, Executive Director of the Contra Costa County Taxpayers Association, and others.

My understanding is that the agenda for this meeting is very straightforward – a discussion about how to hold the line in California against tax increases.

Of course, the biggest opportunity for Democrats to try to jam the Governor a legislative Republicans with tax and spending increases will be the upcoming budget negotiations. It is certainly our hope that the May… Read More