State Senator John Campbell has won (absentee ballots show him ahead 53% to the Democrat’s 25% to Gilchrist’s 19%) today’s Special Election for California’s 48th Congressional District.

See live election results here. See OC Registrar of Voters live webcam here.

As the OC Blog points out, Gilchrist is running behind the Democrat. I guess the Minute Man has had his 15 already.… Read More

In the week since Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed Susan Kennedy to be his new Chief of Staff, GOP grassroots volunteers and donors up and down the state have been reacting strongly to the news. Whether it is her former positions as Gray Davis’ Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Director of the California Democrat Party, Senior Staffer to Senator Dianne Feinstein, or her post as Executive Director of the California Abortion Rights Action League — news of the appointment is really ginning up ire.

Apparently the members of the California Republican Party Board of Directors have been really been feeling the heat. So much so that they held an emergency telephonic meeting of the Board of Directors late last week, and coming out of that meeting have asked for an in-person meeting with Schwarzenegger to discuss Kennedy’s appointment, as well as go-forward plans between the Governor and the State GOP. One area that will certainly need to be ironed out is who will represent the… Read More

In my initial blog here several weeks ago, I asked for you to share those examples of “outside the box” ideas taking place in local government around the state. That invitation stands, by the way.

Case in point. Although it hit this morning’s Union-Tribune and was noted by a couple of local TV stations, the story was far more deserving of even broader attention: One of the state’s largest high school districts is looking at a proposal to go ALL charter, by adding 10 charter campuses to the one already in place.… Read More

My least favorite legislator—Senator Jackie Speier, a Democrat from the Bay Area—wants to change the lieutenant governor’s office from a “do-nothing” office into an activist office which has its hands in higher education and consumer issues. In fact, she thinks the lieutenant governor should be the "guardian of higher education in California.”

Everyone who runs for the lieutenant governor job wants to make it more important than it is. Frankly, to make it a more valuable job, we should run the governor and lieutenant governor on the same ticket…but that’s another topic. Mostly, what the state doesn’t need is Jackie Speier in… Read More

My very first job in politics was for Bruce Herschensohn’s 1992 campaign for U. S. Senate. He embodied everything I believed in. He was also a good and kind and gentle man who to this day can articulate the conservative-small government principled position on any issue better than anyone I have ever heard or read.

Others have already written about how much Bruce has meant to them, but I feel compelled to write my own story and make sure we all remember that it is the dirty-work of Susan Kennedy that tanked Bruce’s chances in that pivotal election.

I won’t rehash the details, Jon Fleischman explains them well.

And I won’t even suggest that the dirty-tricks that Susan Kennedy (then executive director of the California Democratic Party) pulled were any worse than some tactics we see today.

But I keep coming back to why? Why the… Read More

Last week, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reached outside of his own political party, tapping former California Democrat Party Executive Director Susan Kennedy to be his new Chief of Staff. Kennedy has been serving the last couple of years as an appointee of recalled Governor Gray Davis to the Public Utilities Commission, taking that post after having served as Davis’ Deputy Chief of Staff. Kennedy’s bizarre connections made for unique post to the FR blog.

I’ve written about this appointment a few times, as well as a recap of a conversation I had with Governor Schwarzenegger here.

I can tell you that I continue to get a steady string of e-mails from folks were are quite upset over the appointment – now well over a thousand of them. It was… Read More

Bill Leonard, one of the two Republican Members of the Board of Equalization, is well regarding throughout California. During his time on the Board, as well as many, many years preceding that as a member of both the State Senate and State Assembly, Leonard has earned a reputation for being smart, thoughtful and articulate Republican Leader. Today in his weekly e-mail, the Leonard Letter, the Board of Equalization Member had some very strong words on the Governor’s appointment of former Gray Davis’ Deputy Chief of Staff, Susan Davis, to head up his own staff:

I just received an email from William Bennett Finn, the VERY capable political reporter for the North San Diego County Times.

He sent the following:

Wyland announces run for state Senate

After weeks of speculation over whether he would decide to run for Congress or the state Senate or both, Mark Wyland told the North County Times on Monday that he will definitely run for the state Senate seat now held by Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside.

Morrow will leave office due to term limits and has already declared his candidacy for the 50th District congressional seat that until last week was held by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Wyland’s announcement to run for the Senate would appear to take him… Read More