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

Sharon Runner is one of the most respected among the California State Assembly’s Republican members, and she will be re-elected.

Assemblywoman Runner has represented the 36th District for the past two terms after succeeding her husband, now-Senator George Runner, in 2002. She serves as Assistant Republican Leader and asVice Chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

So why would Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford file to run against Runner in the upcoming Republican primary? Well, I believe it’s time to shed some light onto the man who wouldchallenge someone who recently co-wrote the Jessica’s Law initiative andconvinced 713,000 California citizens to signpetitions to put Jessica’s Law on the November ballot.

Most of the 36th District’s elected officials, including Congressman Buck McKeon, L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and San Bernardino County Board… Read More

March 5, a street in the middle class city of Lakewoodis rocked by the expolsoion of ILLEGAL fireworks. The fire destroys a home and damages a few others.

City Council members must act. They know the solution ban LEGAL fireworks.

The brightest that Lakewood citiznescould elect have scheduled a November election to ban all fireworks in the city. If passed it will cut off funds to various non-profits.Don’t worry taxpayers will pick up the tab for the non-religious ones. See the story here.

Take that illegal firework merchants.… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger’s came into Fresno yesterday and outlined his aggressive support of vocational education. He laid out a comprehensive policy agenda which you can read here.

That said, it was his trip over to the editorial board at the Fresno Bee that has been burning up the blogosphere. While meeting with the Bee folks, when the subject of Rob Reiner came up, for the first time, the Governor was not silent. He said that he has no plans to appoint a new Chairman to the Children and Families First Commission and thus ‘retire’ Reiner. You can read more about this on… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger’s came into Fresno yesterday and outlined his aggressive support of vocational education. He laid out a comprehensive policy agenda which you can read here.

That said, it was his trip over to the editorial board at the Fresno Bee that has been burning up the blogosphere. While meeting with the Bee folks, when the subject of Rob Reiner came up, for the first time, the Governor was not silent. He said that he has no plans to appoint a new Chairman to the Children and Families First Commission and thus ‘retire’ Reiner. You can read more about this on… Read More

Exception political law attorney Dana Reed send this along. Pardon if the formatting is messed up as this is being posted from a Blackberry PDA:

FROM DANA REED:

"The Democratic primary election to succeed Senator Joe Dunn in the 34th SD (Central Orange County) was expected to be one of the most expensive legislative races in California’s history. Assemblyman Tom Umberg and County Supervisor Lou Correa were poised to re-enact the Gunfight at the OC Corral, and spend over $1,000,000 each in doing so.

The lines were drawn in the sand. Business interests and moderate Democrats were supporting Correa. Trial lawyers and environmentalists were on Umberg’s side. It was going to be fun to watch.

But Correa has shot himself in the foot and his name might not appear on the ballot. If Umberg’s attorneys are successful, Correa will be forced to run as a "write in" candidate, a daunting task at best.

What happened?

Well, the Correa campaign failed to follow the rules in submitting the proper number of signatures on their candidate’s Nomination Documents, and they got… Read More