Just in — apparently Assemblyman Anthony Adams has resigned the Chairmanship of the San Bernardino County Republican Party — a post to which he had only recently been elected. While I don’t have a lot of details, you can be sure that this is fallout for his vote last week for the largest state-level tax increase in our nation’s history.… Read More

Today twenty eight members of the Assembly Republican Caucus sent a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the letter, Assembly GOPers pledge to be as helpful as possible in helping pave the way for use of those parts of the recently passed federal "stimulus" package that will actually help the economy.

Along with that, however, was a prudent request of the Governor — which is that he reject any of the package that comes only with the creation of expansion of programs that would require future funding.

The signed letter is linked below.… Read More

Earlier we blogged that Assemblyman Anthony Adams resigned had resigned as San Bernardino County Chairman. Now I have heard that this may, in fact, NOT be the case. So we pulled down that earlier post, and we’ll keep you apprised. Sorry, folks. My source was pretty reliable.… Read More

For what it’s worth, I wanted to share some thoughts about the quasi State of the Union last night:

There’s no doubt Obama is an exceptional orator, but much of the content was a mile wide and an inch deep and it will be hard to translate so many policy priorities into first year accomplishments.

First some general audience observations. Rep. Sanchez was falling out of her chair to hug, handshake and buss the president; despite what some say we are a nation at war and Congress could do better to keep the celebrity president hysteria to a minimum. I also noted several familiar GOP and Democratic members seeking autographs toward the end of the ceremony. Speaker Pelosi on more than one occasion seemed uncertain when to applaud–reforming social security, good idea–oh wait. One reporter we heard said members got their as much as 12 hours early to hold their aisle seats for a handshake chance. Fortunately Congress’ results are not matched against billable office hours.

President Obama repeated the phrase or iterations of "we inherited" on three occasions that I counted. We all know what he was saying and for… Read More

There have been many voices heard since the state budget was passed with the help of a handful of GOP legislators last week. I waited to digest the news, listen to the debate coming out of the Republican convention and think about the future of the Republican Party in our great state. It’s crystal clear to me now what change we need for the California Republican Party. We need a divorce from our governor.

There is great outrage—and much deserved—at the GOP legislators that voted for the budget. But we need to also put ourselves in their shoes. They are members of the minority party (and a minority party that is significantly shrunken in size). There was incredible pressure for them to vote for a budget. Democrat legislators, members of the press, educators and others from their local districts and—let’s not forget—the governor, were all pressuring them to “do the right thing.”

So I find it interesting that we, as a party, took action against the handful of legislators who voted for the budget but didn’t take any action to remove Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from the CRP board.

The legislators would not have been in the… Read More

I am no sure what rock I was under when Outrageous Hero: The B.T. Collins Story came out last year. When a friend mentioned the book to me I knew it was going to move to the front of the line of books I needed to read.

I was a young Capitol staffer when Collins died of a heart attack in March 1992. i talked to him a few times but don’t pretend that I knew the man. He was a legend.

This is a man that grew up in New York, joined the Army during Vietnam and spent two tours there. On June 20, 1967 as an Army Captain he lost an arm and a leg to a grenade. This one day defined his life to a degree but did not stop him from going on to Santa Clara Law School, becoming a staff member for Governor Jerry Brown, running the California Conservation Corps, serving as Chief of Staff to Governor Brown, running the California Youth Authority for Governor Wilson, and then winning a special election for the Assembly and getting re-elected before suffering a massive heart attack… Read More

Last weekend at the GOP convention, just 72 hours after casting the deciding vote to pass a massive tax increase out of the State Senate, Senator Abel Maldonado actually had the moxie to show up. I ran into him in a hallway there, and we shared some words — the kind of "street theater" reminds me of the "old days" when I was an activist with Young Americans for Freedom…

I had told a few people about it — but now everyone can see it, as Carla Marinucci from the San Francisco Chronicle apparently had her handy-dandy video camera on at the time. You can read more of her observations on the convention here. I’ve reposted the video below… … Read More

This last weekend’s California Republican Party Biennial Organizational Convention in Sacramento was a busy one, and so it will take me a few blog posts to really talk about all of the aspects of it, and ultimately provide a comprehensive recap. As conventions go, it was a tremendously successful one. It was a extremely well attended by delegates and guests (this is especially notable due to the absence of hotly contested races for statewide party office) and the lineup of speakers was top notch.

Speakers at the convention included South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Chairman of the National Republican Governors Association, former United National Ambassador John Bolton, gubernatorial hopefuls Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, Lieutenant Governor candidate State Senator Jeff Denham and talked about potential candidate Bill Simon, U.S. Senate candidate Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and rumored potential candidates Carly Fiorina and Larry Elder, Congressmen Darrell Issa and Tom McClintock and also national conservative leader Bill Bennett. As I pen… Read More