The San Bernardino County Republican Party is encouraging the District Attorney’s Office and Registrar of Voters to aggressively investigate a recent rash of apparent voter-registration fraud the party alleges may have been committed by paid petition circulators in San Bernardino County. Similar allegations are also being investigated in the City of Rialto and the County of Orange.

Staff from the County Republican Party Central Committee were informed Thursday by the Registrar of Voters that registrations gathered by associates of the firm owned by the party’s recently retained voter-registration consultant, John Burkett of Riverside, may have included more than 3,000 instances of potential registration fraud over the past two months. A number of those alleged fraudulent registrations have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office.

County Republican Party Chairman Bill Postmus last week ordered a halt to the party’s paid voter registration program and ordered that no invoices for registrations submitted this year be paid until the County’s investigations are complete and all registrations to be paid for by the… Read More

It took the British publication “The Economist” to finally point out the fact that “The Daily Show” has replaced “Saturday Night Live” as the standard of American political satire. I was cooking dinner for Valerie, Ella and I when I read this in the column “Lexington” and sort of skimmed past this comment. But since the Simpsons were replaced by the dreary Oscars my mind kept sort of going back to this point. For most of us, for most of our ‘adult’ lives, Saturday Night Live has set the pace. In my memory, that usually revolved around Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton… after which I sort of dropped out of the club. Thinking about why I rarely watch SNL anymore tonight I first attributed it to age (“never trust anyone over 30”) but that didn’t really work the more I mulled it over.

I’m going to cross the Rubicon here: I don’t watch SNL very often any more because their skits drag. Particularly their political skits. They repeat the same joke over and over for like 10 minutes. They beat the point into your skull until you just want to throw a brick at the screen. Horatio and his… Read More

This weekend, a couple hundred delegates are gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield for the biennial endorsing convention of the California Republican Assembly. The CRA is California’s oldest and most conservative Republican volunteer organization, with traditions that go back to its founding in the 1930’s. The CRA has been a pivotal force in California politics, a key player because of its direct influence on politics as well as the training grounds it provides for many who go on to seek elective office or otherwise get involved in the process. Speaking in the first-person, I spent a decade of ‘intense’ involvement with the CRA starting from being a club member and rising through the ranks to an eventual two-year term as State President from 1995-1997. Being elected CRA President was one of the greatest honors of my life. The things I learned, the perspective gained, the challenges met and overcome continue to provide me with guidance in the things I do today. I am… Read More

A good question for a Saturday morning… Why is Rob Reiner still the Chairman of California’s Children and Families Commission? Its been a couple of weeks now since the FR suggested that the Governor replace Reiner. Starting with the revelation by FR friend Hugh Hewitt that Reiner’s term on this influential commission actually is long-expired and that he can be replaced at will by the Governor, everyone I know is asking the question: why isn’t he being replaced? Our reasons for believing that Reiner should be "terminated" from this spot exist on multiple levels. First and foremost, his socialistic mentality of increasing taxes on those who are responsible for job creation in the California economy, and then providing questionable government-run services that he has invented is loonacy. He is so far off of even the liberal main-stream that he is an embarrassment to the Golden State. That… Read More

A good question for a Saturday morning… Why is Rob Reiner still the Chairman of California’s Children and Families Commission? Its been a couple of weeks now since the FR suggested that the Governor replace Reiner. Starting with the revelation by FR friend Hugh Hewitt that Reiner’s term on this influential commission actually is long-expired and that he can be replaced at will by the Governor, everyone I know is asking the question: why isn’t he being replaced? Our reasons for believing that Reiner should be "terminated" from this spot exist on multiple levels. First and foremost, his socialistic mentality of increasing taxes on those who are responsible for job creation in the California economy, and then providing questionable government-run services that he has invented is loonacy. He is so far off of even the liberal main-stream that he is an embarrassment to the Golden State. That… Read More

Banning Councilwoman and 65th Assembly candidate Brenda Salas is set to announce she’s been endorsed by Sen. Tom McClintock, the GOP’s presumed nominee for Lt. Governor.

The endorsement of the conservative GOP stalwart could help Salas fend off criticism of her past Democratic Party affiliation.

It’s probably worth a mention that McClintock’s district director, Joe Giardiello, is Salas’ campaign consultant. I’m told the senator also interviewed at least one other candidate: San Jacinto Councilman Jim Ayres, considered by many to be the frontrunner in the race.

Salas also welcomed additional help last week from San Bernardino County Supervisor Gary Ovitt, who has loaned his district director, Josh Candelaria, and constituent services rep Naseem Farooqi to run Salas’ ground game.

In other A.D. 65 news, Yucca Valley Councilman Paul Cook has retained former CRP Development Director Mike Fresquez to boost his fundraising effort. Fresquez specializes in finding "new money" and is said to be quite good at it.… Read More

A close political associate of mine contacted me and told me that Bill Thomas is retiring on Monday. He didn’t say “might be” retiring. The person is not a staff member, just a citizen and operative who is close to all the parties involved. I think the information is accurate. I might also add that I look forward to the announcement, and that Kevin McCarthy will be better than most conservatives expect as a member of Congress.… Read More

The San Diego Union Tribune has just announced that ex-Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been sentenced to a term of 8 years and 4 months in prison. He is taken into custody, and ordered to pay $1.8,000,000.00 in restitution.

Read more about it here: SD U-T article.