Based on a ton of emails that I have received since my post yesterday afternoon on the California Republican Party hiring Patrick Dorenson to be its new Communications Director, I felt like I needed to follow up with a note.

You see, I thought it was incredibly newsworthy that the CRP has hired a prominent former Democrat political operative to head up their Communications effort. I first heard about this hire from reading about it in Capitol Weekly, who also thought that Dorenson’s past work for the campaigns of Al Gore and Bill Clinton were worthy of note, leading with that in their story.

The reason for this note is that many are assuming that because I pointed out this ‘unique’ (to say the least) background for Dorenson, that this means that I am unhappy or displeased with his being hired. That is not the case at all. As a matter… Read More

A laugh for the day….read the San Francisco Chronicle’s story on the Richmond music teacher who is so upset that the kids in his community are gang-bangers with asthma that he felt compelled to chain himself to a park bench in Oakland for the week to protest the war. He’ll be getting up for bathroom breaks at the nearby Grand Lake Theater, which regularly posts diatribes on the marquee which alternate between calling for President Bush’s impeachment and deploring the use of Diebold voting machines. The protester was going to chain himself to a federal building, but decided he didn’t want to get charged under the Patriot Act. Like most of us, he couldn’t get a phone call returned from the Oakland police (after calling to see how much trouble he’d get into chaining himself to a city bench, so he just went ahead and did it).… Read More

A few weeks ago, I reported that Christopher Cox, Chairman of the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission, was undergoing surgery. I’m happy to let you know that FR friend Chris Cox today returned to work! Cox, of course, ably represented Orange County in the United States House of Representatives from 1989 until last year when he was tapped by the POTUS for this new role.

Here is the short AP blurb on Cox’s return to work:

It was recently reported that conservative former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian had listed on campaign piece that he had been endorsed by the California Pro-Life Council, when, in fact, he never had the endorsement of that group. I heard from a representative of Kaloogian’s campaign that this was printed in error. In reality, Kaloogian was actually endorsed by Mike Meunsh, Legislative Director for the National Pro-Life Alliance.

Of course, Kaloogian is running with about 500 other Republicans in the primary to see who will replace Duke Cunningham in Congress. Many of the candidates are pro-life — Howard certainly one of them.… Read More

Great news from Jessica’s Law co-sponsors Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (both pictured center right), who have announcedthat 713,787 signatures were submitted today to election officials throughout the state. Thisvirtually assuresthe ballot-initiative version of Jessica’s Law will go before the state’s voters in November. The campaign needed to collect 373,816 valid signatures to qualify the statutory measure. "This is a historic step in our efforts to protect Californians and especially our children and grandchildren, from sexual predators," said George Runner.

This morning, local Jessica’s Law supporters gathered at the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters’ Office to turn in 63,000 signatures. Below is the text of a release from the Jessica’s Law campaign regarding the San Bernardino signature turn-in.

SAN BERNARDINO — Fourth District Supervisor Gary Ovitt (Jessica’s Law Statewide Co-Chair), Assemblyman… Read More

The next several days on this blog will probably devote a lot of time to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s relationship with the Republican Party. But before we descend into this weekend’s state GOP convention bubble, it’s worth taking a quick look at this past weekend’s news coverage of the two Democratic candidates. Both Phil Angelides and Steve Westly have had great fun riding the coattails of the nurses and the public employees’ unions for several months of sustained Arnold-bashing. But over the last few days, both have taken their turn in the barrel. Which probably wasn’t nearly as enjoyable for them.

The Sacramento Bee went after Angelides, describing how the environmentally conscious candidate wasn’t nearly as green during his days as a developer, when he fought with local, state, and federal agencies over threatened species and wetland protection to the point where the EPA threatened him with criminal penalties.

Westly took it on the chin… Read More

THREE AND A HALF CONTENDERS FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL I am a huge fan of contested primaries. I think that the whole argument that a candidate is better off because they have "cleared the field" is a misnomer and misplaced. Of course the challenge of winning a party primary means that resources will need to be raised and spent in order to do so. But it is this process that makes a candidate the best they can be for the general election. A primary hones a candidates speaking skills and fundraising skills. A primary allows a candidate to understand who really supports them. A primary also causes candidates to have to make some very real decisions and choices that allow party members to appreciate the candidate who becomes their nominee. I think the same holds true whether we are talking about candidate for the Democrat or Republican nomination. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a stronger candidate for re-election this… Read More

THREE AND A HALF CONTENDERS FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL I am a huge fan of contested primaries. I think that the whole argument that a candidate is better off because they have "cleared the field" is a misnomer and misplaced. Of course the challenge of winning a party primary means that resources will need to be raised and spent in order to do so. But it is this process that makes a candidate the best they can be for the general election. A primary hones a candidates speaking skills and fundraising skills. A primary allows a candidate to understand who really supports them. A primary also causes candidates to have to make some very real decisions and choices that allow party members to appreciate the candidate who becomes their nominee. I think the same holds true whether we are talking about candidate for the Democrat or Republican nomination. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a stronger candidate for re-election this… Read More