The lead story on the FlashReport today is penned by Shane Goldmacher in the Capitol Weekly. Goldmacher, in going through campaign reports, found that the Governor’s new campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, has already received three paychecks of $26,250 in six weeks. I guess that would be an eye-popping number in a paycheck, except for two factors…the first being that the numbers reflect a signing bonus. The other factor is Schmidt himself… (Let me add here that while many, many FR readers know me, thousands of you do not. I am not into gratuitous flattery or heaping praise where it is not due. As a matter of fact, if you’ve been a reader of this page, you know that I have no trouble be brutally honest with my praise or criticism, no matter the political party or ideology of my subject. That said…) Let’s remember that Schmidt, who is fresh off of major victories in Washington, D.C., for the administration where Schmidt was most recently the point man for the successful confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. This role came as a part of… Read More

The CRA continues to pound on Brian Bilbray in the 50th CD Special, unveiling a new website. Below is a screen-capture from the main page of www.bilbraytheliberallobbyist.com.

Welcome to the world of politics. You can see why Bilbray faught hard to NOT be a ‘lobbyist’ on the ballot, even though that is what he does. By no means do I think that Bilbray is any way the scoundrel that Jack Abramoff turned out to be. But Abmamoff has made ‘lobbyist’ a bad word, and in the 50th district where ethics is a key issue, it is no surprise that attempts are being made to connect dots between Bilbray and Ambramoff, who were in the same business.… Read More

President Bush has been taking heat from all sides on his effort to shepherd immigration reform legislation through Congress. Conservatives are upset with his guest worker proposals, while liberals are always going to rail against any efforts toward border security and interdiction. On the latter front, the Los Angeles Daily News reports this morning that a rally to defeat congressional efforts to tighten border security is expected to draw tens of thousands of protestors to the streets on downtown LA tomorrow. (The story is in the Daily News here)

Protests like these generally tend to have the opposite effect of their intent, causing a backlask that strengthenss support for most border security measures among most voters without intense feelings on either side of the issue. Language like this from the rally’s organizers indicates that the level of rhetoric at tomorrow’s event may have the same impact:

"This is going to be the mother… Read More

GOVERNOR ’06 – Arnold banks, The Dems spend. The big news of the day is that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has really put his campaign fundraising into gear, raising millions of dollars since the beginning of the year – out raising each of his Democratic opponents. Actually, this highlights the financial advantage of running unopposed as the Republican Party’s pre-primary endorsed nominee for Governor — Schwarzenegger is not only putting money in the bank for the fall campaign — but his two opponents are spending money like crazy on television ads as they wage a hard-fought campaign for their party’s nomination. Of course, all three candidates for Governor are quite wealthy in their own right, multi-millionaires all. That said, there are a lot of news stories today that talk about the extremely deep pockets of E-bay co-founder Steve Westly, who has a personal fortune measured in… Read More

GOVERNOR ’06 – Arnold banks, The Dems spend. The big news of the day is that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has really put his campaign fundraising into gear, raising millions of dollars since the beginning of the year – out raising each of his Democratic opponents. Actually, this highlights the financial advantage of running unopposed as the Republican Party’s pre-primary endorsed nominee for Governor — Schwarzenegger is not only putting money in the bank for the fall campaign — but his two opponents are spending money like crazy on television ads as they wage a hard-fought campaign for their party’s nomination. Of course, all three candidates for Governor are quite wealthy in their own right, multi-millionaires all. That said, there are a lot of news stories today that talk about the extremely deep pockets of E-bay co-founder Steve Westly, who has a personal fortune measured in… Read More

The last line in the Capitol Weekly’s piece today profiling the three Democrats running to replace termed out Assemblywoman Wilma Chan in the 16th Assembly district race reminds me why it’s so lonely in the Bay Area at election time:

"No Republicans have filed to run in the district, where GOP voters are outnumbered 6-to-1 by Democrats."

That line made me think of my 10-year-old daughter asking me the other day if John Kerry is from California. "No," I said. "He’s from Massachusetts."

"Well, then why does everyone in Oakland have his bumper sticker on their cars?" she asked.

Mind you, it’s March ’06. Kerry lost the election in November… Read More

The special election in San Diego’s 50th Congressional District is coming down to the home stretch, with the election just weeks away. There are a half-dozen viable GOP candidates all trying to get the biggest piece of the pie.

By most accounts, the candidate who is leading the pack if former Congressman Brian Bilbray, who has been working as a federal lobbyist (for an immigration reform group, and other clients) since he lost his house seat years ago.

Anyways, the conventional wisdom is that Bilbray will win unless he is the subject of negative campaign mail hitting him on his vulnerabilities as a lobbyist, and potentially as a former Member of Congress in a district where the Duke Cunningham calamity might leave voters looking for a fresh face.

The California Republican Assembly Federal PAC has a negative piece on Bilbray hitting wide and deep throughout the 50th District tomorrow. The CRA folks sent over a copy of the piece — it is attached below.

Oh yes, an interesting point – the CRA… Read More

I have received dozens of calls over the last month about CRA and how one goes about getting a CRA endorsement. People could read our bylaws at the CRA website. I’ve learned that it easier to find my phone numberon the site then click the by-laws link. So here is a quick primer.

Statewide endorsements and Board of Equalization are done at the Statewide Endorsing Convention. We recently had one in Bakersfield. Delegates sent by units and the Board of Directors then endorse statewidecandidates and initiatives.

All endorsements at all levels require a two-thirds vote.

CRA is a conservative organization not only in beliefs, but also in how it operates. The state does not endorse in local races.

If the local race partisan or non-partisan has more than one unit in that area (meaning ANY of the geography regardless of size), a local endorsing convention must be called with delegates from all the affected units. With the current gerrymandered seats, some legislative districts could haveseveral clubs that need to be invited to participate. A single club in a… Read More